SPhoG Back-End

The back end-server for the SPhoG image gallery application.

The main purpose of the back end-sesrver is to serve as a caching layer due to very aggressive rate limiting on the Unsplash API. The back-end server also serves as a method of protecting the project's access key, which the Unsplash documentation states should be kept secret.

Requirements

• Python 3.10.8 or later
• MongoDB 6.0.3 or later

Installation

To get a local copy of Sextant working on your machine, follow these steps

• Ensure you have installed all the packages specified in the Requirements section.

• Clone this repository.

  git clone https://github.com/derickkemp/SPhoG-be.git

• Navigate to project directory.

  cd SPhoG-be

• Create a virtual environment for your application.

  python -m venv venv

• Install the required packages.

  pip install -r requirements.txt

• Create a file named .env.secret in the project root and add your MongoDB database name and Unsplash access key.

  MONGODB_DB=<REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR MONGODB DATABASE NAME>
  UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY=<REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR UNSPLASH ACCESS KEY>
  

• Navigate to to the src directory

  cd src/

• Hydrate the cache with initial data

  python -m sphog_be.db.utils.hydrate_db

• Start the development server.

  python -m flask --app sphog_be.app run